GREEN BAY — After a 254-word filibuster, Joe Barry got to the heart of the matter. He used words such as brutal and devastating.
The Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator had been asked on Tuesday afternoon a relatively straightforward question: Just how much had his defense missed star cornerback Jaire Alexander last season?
In the heat of in-season competition, no one was blaming Barry for obfuscating, talking instead about the importance of having the proverbial next-man-up mentality, playing up his confidence in the team’s other cornerbacks, or downplaying how worried he was about losing a shutdown corner who’d been named second-team All-Pro and voted to the Pro Bowl the previous season.